Techniques to control a shared antenna architecture for multiple co-located radio modules

ABSTRACT

Techniques to control a shared antenna architecture for multiple co-located radio modules is disclosed. For example, a method may comprise receiving power state information for a set of transceivers, receiving activity information for the set of transceivers, and generating control signals for simultaneous operations or mutually-exclusive operations for a shared antenna structure connecting the set of transceivers to an antenna based on the power state information and activity information. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part, and claims priority to, thecommonly-owned co-pending patent applications U.S. Ser. No. 11/555,255,entitled “COORDINATION AMONG MULTIPLE CO-LOCATED RADIO MODULES,” filedOct. 31, 2006, and U.S. Ser. No. 12/400,702, entitled “SHARED ANTENNAARCHITECTURE FOR MULTIPLE CO-LOCATED RADIO MODULES,” filed Mar. 9, 2009,which are all incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

Mobile computing devices, such as smart phones, may provide variousprocessing capabilities. For example, mobile devices may providepersonal digital assistant (PDA) features, including word processing,spreadsheets, synchronization of information (e.g., e-mail) with adesktop computer, and so forth.

In addition, such devices may have wireless communications capabilities.More particularly, mobile devices may employ various communicationstechnologies to provide features, such as mobile telephony, mobilee-mail access, web browsing, and content (e.g., video and radio)reception. Exemplary wireless communications technologies includecellular, satellite, and mobile data networking technologies.

Furthermore, devices may include multiple radios to handle differentwireless technologies. For such a device, the use of multiple radiostypically needs multiple antennas, one for each radio. Multiple antennasincrease device expenses, as well as consume additional space andresources for a device. Multiple antennas may also cause mutualinterference between radios. This may be particularly problematic fordevices with smaller form-factors, such as a mobile computing device. Asa result, performance degradation may occur. This degradation can impairor even prevent the device performing various communicationsapplications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a first apparatus.

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a first shared antenna structure.

FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a second shared antenna structure.

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a logic flow.

FIG. 5A illustrates one embodiment of a second apparatus.

FIG. 5B illustrates one embodiment of a third apparatus.

FIG. 6 illustrates one embodiment of an antenna control module.

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments may be generally directed to techniques for sharingan antenna by multiple radios. Further, various embodiments may begenerally directed to coordinating signal transmission and receptionactivities of multiple radios to enhance sharing of an antenna bymultiple radios. These radios may be within a single device, such as amobile computing device, for example. Thus, such radios are alsoreferred to as co-located radios.

Embodiments may include a mobile computing device, such as a smartphone, having an antenna, a shared antenna structure, and two or morewireless transceivers (or radios). The shared antenna structure may bearranged to allow simultaneous or mutually-exclusive use of the antennaby the two or more wireless transceivers. This provides the advantage ofreducing a number of antennas implemented on a single device,particularly those with a smaller form factor, such as a mobilecomputing device. Furthermore, the shared antenna structure mayefficiently use power provided to a mobile computing device, therebyextending battery life for the mobile computing device. As a result, amobile computing device may be smaller, lighter and operate longer thanconventional devices.

The shared antenna structure may use an innovative combination ofcircuit elements, such as combiners and switches, to enhanceco-existence and reduce insertion loss due to the combiners whenoperating in one or both modes. For instance, when operating in onemode, the shared antenna structure may avoid the use of circuit elementsused to provide the other mode, and vice-versa. This potentially avoidsinefficiencies associated with the circuit elements used to provideeither mode. For example, when operating in a mutually-exclusive mode,the shared antenna structure may avoid the use of one or more combinersused to provide a simultaneous mode. This reduces insertion lossassociated with the combiners when the shared antenna structure is usedby a single transceiver. In some cases, the insertion loss may besignificant, on the order of 3.5 to 4 dB or more. The insertion losspotentially reduces the range and operational performance of theco-located radios. Consequently, reduced insertion loss may result inbetter power utilization and/or improved quality of wireless signalsreceived by the transceivers. However, when operating in another mode,the shared antenna structure may allow the co-located radios to share asingle antenna, thereby allowing each radio to virtually have its ownantenna, with the realization that there is a corresponding amount ofinsertion loss when operating in this mode. Accordingly, the sharedantenna structure improves co-existence of co-located radios, whilereducing disadvantages associated with conventional antenna sharingtechniques.

Operations for the two or more wireless transceivers may be coordinatedto improve performance of the shared antenna structure when in eithermode. For instance, the apparatus may also include controllers, eachcontrolling wireless communications of a corresponding transceiver.Information may be exchanged with each other, or a central controller,regarding operation of the transceivers. Through the exchange of suchinformation, activity (e.g., transmission and reception of wirelesssignals) may be coordinated among the transceivers. As a result, thetransceivers may share the antenna via the shared antenna structure in amore efficient and effective manner. This may further enhance powerutilization and/or improved quality of wireless signals received by thetransceivers.

Embodiments of the present invention may involve a variety of wirelesscommunications technologies. These technologies may include cellular anddata networking systems. Exemplary data networking systems includewireless local area networks (WLANs), wireless metropolitan areanetworks (WMANs), and personal area networks (PANs).

Various embodiments may comprise one or more elements. An element maycomprise any structure arranged to perform certain operations. Eachelement may be implemented as hardware, software, or any combinationthereof, as desired for a given set of design parameters or performanceconstraints. Although an embodiment may be described with a limitednumber of elements in a certain topology by way of example, theembodiment may include other combinations of elements in alternatearrangements as desired for a given implementation. It is worthy to notethat any reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Theappearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in thespecification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of an apparatus that may communicateacross different types of wireless links. In particular, FIG. 1 shows anapparatus 100 comprising various elements. The embodiments, however, arenot limited to these depicted elements. FIG. 1 shows that apparatus 100may include an antenna 110, a shared antenna structure 150, a firstradio module 102, a second radio module 104, a host 106, and aninterconnection medium 108. These elements may be implemented inhardware, software, firmware, or in any combination thereof.

Although apparatus 100 only shows two radio modules 102, 104, it may beappreciated that apparatus 100 may include more than two radio modules(and associated elements) as desired for a given implementation.Further, although apparatus 100 only shows a single antenna 110, it maybe appreciated that apparatus 100 may include additional antennas forsharing with multiple transceivers. This may be desirable, for example,when a mobile computing device implements a wireless diversity schemethat utilizes an antenna array of two or more antennas to improvequality and reliability of a wireless link. An example of a wirelessdiversity scheme may include a multiple-input multiple-output (orvariation thereof) system. In this case, one or both of the radiomodules 102, 104 may share one or more antennas from the antenna arrayvia the shared antenna structure 150.

First radio module 102 and second radio module 104 (and/or additionalradio modules) may communicate with remote devices across differenttypes of wireless links. For example, first radio module 102 and secondradio module 104 may communicate across various data networking links.Examples of such data networking links include wireless local areanetwork (WLAN) links, such as IEEE 802.11 WiFi links. Further examplesinclude wireless metropolitan area (WMAN) links, such as IEEE 802.16WiMAX links, and personal area networks (PAN) links such as Bluetoothlinks, Ultra-Wideband (UWB)/WiMedia links, and so forth.

Additionally or alternatively, first radio module 102 and second radiomodule 104 (and/or additional radio modules) may communicate acrosswireless links provided by one or more cellular systems. Exemplarycellular systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems,Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) systems, North AmericanDigital Cellular (NADC) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)systems, Extended-TDMA (E-TDMA) systems, Digital Advanced Mobile PhoneService (IS-136/TDMA), Narrowband Advanced Mobile Phone Service (NAMPS)systems, third generation (3G) systems such as Wide-band CDMA (WCDMA),CDMA-2000, Universal Mobile Telephone System (UMTS), cellularradiotelephone systems compliant with the Third-Generation PartnershipProject (3GPP), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and so forth. However, theembodiments are not limited to these examples. For instance, secondradio module 104 may additionally or alternatively communicate acrossnon-cellular communications links.

In one embodiment, for example, first radio module 102 is a WiFi deviceand second radio module 104 is a Bluetooth device. The embodiments,however, are not limited to these examples.

FIG. 1 shows that first radio module 102 includes a transceiver 114 anda communications controller 116. Transceiver 114 may transmit andreceive wireless signals through an antenna 110 via shared antennastructure 150. As described above, these signals may be associated withwireless data networks, such as a WiFi link. However, the embodimentsare not limited to such.

Communications controller 116 controls the operation of transceiver 114.For instance, communications controller 116 may schedule transmissionand reception activity for transceiver 114. Such control and schedulingmay be implemented through one or more control directives 126. Controldirective(s) 126 may be based on operational status information 128,which communications controller 116 receives from transceiver 114. Also,such control directives may be based on status messages 136 receivedfrom radio module 104.

Further, communications controller 116 may perform operations on payloadinformation 129 that it exchanges with transceiver 114. Examples of suchoperations include error correction encoding and decoding, packetencapsulation, various media access control protocol functions, and soforth.

As shown in FIG. 1, second radio module 104 includes a transceiver 118and a communications controller 120. Transceiver 118 may also transmitand/or receive wireless signals through antenna 110 via shared antennastructure 150. As described above, these signals may also be associatedwith wireless data networks, such as a Bluetooth link. However, theembodiments are not limited to such.

Communications controller 120 controls the operation of transceiver 118.This may involve scheduling transmission and reception activity fortransceiver 118. Such control and scheduling may be implemented throughone or more control directives 122. Control directive(s) 122 may bebased on operational status information 124, which communicationscontroller 120 receives from transceiver 118. Also, such controldirectives may be based on status messages 134 received from radiomodule 102.

Additionally, communications controller 120 may perform operations onpayload information 125 that it exchanges with transceiver 118. Examplesof such operations include error correction encoding and decoding,packet encapsulation, various media access control protocol functions,and so forth.

In addition to performing the control operations described above,communications controllers 116, 120 may provide coordination betweenradio modules 102, 104. This coordination may involve the exchange ofinformation. For instance, FIG. 1 shows that communications controller116 may send status messages 134 to controller 120. Conversely,communications controller 120 may send status messages 136 tocommunications controller 116. These messages may be implemented assignals allocated to various signal lines. In such allocations, eachmessage is a signal. However, further embodiments may alternativelyemploy data messages. Such data messages may be sent across variousconnections. Exemplary connections include parallel interfaces, serialinterfaces, and bus interfaces. Further, as systems on a chip (SoC)develop, the separate communication controllers 116, 120 may in fact bethe same piece of silicon or the same core processor. The communicationcontrollers 116, 120 may actually be different function calls orsoftware modules operating on the same chip. In that case, the messagesmay not use different physical connections such as parallel interfaces,serial interfaces, or bus interfaces. When the functions collapse intoone chip, these messages may be passed as message queues, shared viastacks, sent via semaphores or flags, and so forth. The embodiments arenot limited in this context.

Host 106 may exchange information with radio modules 102, 104. As shownin FIG. 1, such exchanges may occur across interconnection medium 108.For instance, host 106 may send information to these radio modules forwireless transmission. Conversely, radio modules 102 and 104 may sendinformation to host 106 that was received in wireless transmissions. Inaddition, host 106 may exchange information with radio modules 102 and104 regarding their configuration and operation. Examples of suchinformation include control directives sent from host 106 to radiomodules 102 and 104.

Furthermore, host 106 may perform operations associated with higherlayer protocols and applications. For instance, host 106 may providevarious user applications, such as telephony, text messaging, e-mail,web browsing, word processing, video signal display, and so forth. Inaddition, host 106 may provide one or more functional utilities that areavailable to various protocols, operations, and/or applications.Examples of such utilities include operating systems, device drivers,user interface functionality, and so forth.

Interconnection medium 108 provides for couplings among elements, suchas first radio module 102, second radio module 104, and host 106. Thus,interconnection medium 108 may include, for example, one or more businterfaces. Exemplary interfaces include Universal Serial Bus (USB)interfaces, Serial Peripheral Interconnect (SPI) interfaces, SecureDigital Input Output (SDIO) interfaces, as well as various computersystem bus interfaces. Additionally or alternatively, interconnectionmedium 108 may include one or more point-to-point connections (e.g.,parallel interfaces, serial interfaces, etc.) between various elementpairings. In some cases, the host 106 may be in the same physical chipas the communication controllers 116, 120. The interconnection medium108 may therefore be software rather than a physical interface such asUSB, SDIO, SPI, bus, parallel, and so forth. As such cases, theinterconnection medium 108 may be implemented as message queues,semaphores, function calls, stack, global variables, pointers, and soforth. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

In general operation, apparatus 100 may engage in communications acrossmultiple wireless links. However, as described above, co-located radiosmay need to share a single antenna (or antenna array).

In some cases, the co-located radios may need to share antenna 110 atthe same time. For example, a user may desire to talk over a cellularvoice call while using a Bluetooth headset, and using the internet viaWiFi, or a user may desire to stream audio signals from a server over aWiFi link, and listen to the audio signals using a Bluetooth headset. Inanother example, a user may engage in a Voice Over Internet Protocol(VoIP) using a WiFi link, and communicate using a Bluetooth headset. Inyet another example, a user may want to browse the Internet over acellular data channel while talking on a cellular voice channel. Inthese cases the user may desire improved performance in a co-existenceenvironment so that multiple radios can work together.

In other cases, the co-located radios may use antenna 110 at differenttimes. For instance, a user may download audio files from a server overa WiFi link, and store them on a mobile computing device. The user maylater listen to the stored audio files using a Bluetooth headset. Inthese cases the operation of the multiple transceivers may not besimultaneous, but rather sequential, so that a user may desire to haveimproved performance for each one stand-alone.

Conventional solutions for shared front ends are unsatisfactory for anumber of reasons. For example, a switched front end offers reducedinsertion loss, but performs poorly in a coexistence environment. Asplitter front end performs better in the coexistence environment butsuffers from permanent insertion loss offered by the splitter. Thereforeboth solutions provide sub-optimal performance for a mobile computingdevice.

Apparatus 100 solves these and other problems. In various embodiments,shared antenna structure 150 may be coupled to antenna 110 and controlaccess to antenna 110 by the first radio module 102 and the second radiomodule 104. The shared antenna structure 150 may include a combiner andat least one switch arranged to allow the first transceiver 114 and thesecond transceiver 118 to share the antenna for simultaneous operationsor mutually-exclusive operations. Simultaneous operations may refer to amode when both transceivers 114, 118 are active and using antenna 110 atsubstantially the same time to transmit and/or receive wireless signals.This mode may be referred to as a “simultaneous mode.”Mutually-exclusive operations may refer to a mode when one oftransceivers 114, 118 is active and using antenna 110 to transmit and/orreceive wireless signals. This mode may be referred to as a“mutually-exclusive mode” or “time-division switched mode.” Themulti-mode arrangement and operation of the shared antenna structurecombine the advantages of the switched front end and combiner and/orsplitter front end, while reducing the respective disadvantagesassociated with each solution. Apparatus 100 in general and sharedantenna structure 150 in particular may be described in more detail withreference to FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 illustrates an apparatus 200 having a more detailed block diagramfor a first embodiment for the shared antenna structure 150. The sharedantenna structure 150 shown in FIG. 2 comprises multiple switches202-1-p and at least one combiner 204.

The switches 202-1-p may comprise any suitable circuit element capableof changing or switching connections between different input and outputsignal lines. Examples for the switches 202-1-p may include withoutlimitation a n-way type of switch (e.g., 2-way switch, 3-way switch,4-way switch, and so forth), a series of successive switches (e.g., 2single pole double-throw switches), a cross-bar switch connectingmultiple inputs to multiple outputs in a matrix manner, and so forth. Aparticular type of radio-frequency (RF) switch implemented for a givenembodiment may vary in accordance with a standard design considerations,including switch insertion, loss a number of inputs (e.g., 1 input) anda number of outputs (e.g., 2 outputs) for the switch, and so forth. Theembodiments are not limited to this example.

The combiner 204 may comprise any suitable circuit element capable ofcombining multiple signals into a single signal in a forward path, orsplitting a single signal into multiple signals in a reverse path. Theformer operation is typically performed by a combiner in a transmitpath, while the latter operation is typically performed by a splitter ina receive path. As used herein, the term “combiner” is used to refer toboth combining and splitting operations for clarity. In one embodiment,the combiner 204 may comprise a combination combiner/splitter. In otherembodiments, however, the combiner 204 may be separated into differentcircuit elements for performing combining operations and splittingoperations, as known to those skilled in the art. Examples for thecombiner 204 may include without limitation a passive combiner, a powersplitter, a diplexer, a duplexer, a triplexer, a multiplexer, ademultiplexer, and so forth. A particular type of combiner (or splitter)implemented for a given embodiment may vary in accordance with astandard design considerations, including combiner insertion loss, anumber of inputs (e.g., 2 input signals) and a number of outputs (e.g.,1 output signal) for the combiner, and so forth. The embodiments are notlimited to this example.

In addition to insertion loss, another important characteristic of thecombiner 204 is the isolation it offers from one input or output to theother inputs or outputs. In other words, the path loss from an input Ato a different input B is quite high. Also, the path loss from an outputC to a different output D is quite high. The enhanced isolationcharacteristics of the combiner 204 enable enhanced simultaneoustransmit/transmit operations or transmit/receive operations.

Additionally or alternatively, the combiner 204 may be implemented orreplaced with elements such as circulators or an asymmetricalcombiner/splitter. For example, an embodiment may place only a 1 dB lossinto one path and a 6 dB loss into the other path, instead of a standard3.5 dB loss symmetrically into each path.

In the illustrated embodiment shown in FIG. 2, a first switch 202-1 maybe communicatively coupled to the first transceiver 114. A second switch202-2 may be communicatively coupled to the second transceiver 118. Thecombiner 204 may be communicatively coupled to the first and secondswitches 202-1, 202-2. The combiner 204 may also be communicativelycoupled to a third switch 202-3. The third switch 202-3 may becommunicatively coupled to the first switch 202-1, the second switch202-2, and the combiner 204. The third switch 202-3 may also becommunicatively coupled to the antenna 110.

In one embodiment, switch 202-3 may be implemented as a 3-way switchhaving switch positions S1, S2 and S3 to complete different signalspaths through the shared antenna structure 150. The different switchpositions S1, S2 and S3 may be controlled via one or more controlsignals 208 received by the shared antenna structure 150 and the switch202-3.

The shared antenna structure 150 may be arranged to operate in differentsharing modes, including a simultaneous mode and a mutually-exclusivemode. In a simultaneous mode, both of the transceivers 114, 118 mayutilize the antenna 110 at substantially the same time. In amutually-exclusive mode, only one of the transceivers 114, 118 mayutilize the antenna 110 at any point in time. The shared antennastructure 150 may be placed in a given mode in response to a controlsignal 208.

When operating in the simultaneous mode, in the transmit path, thetransceivers 114, 118 may receive respective input data streams 206-1,206-2, and process the respective input data streams 206-1, 206-2 forsimultaneous transmission over the antenna 110. The switch 202-1 mayconnect lines 210-1, 210-5, and the switch 202-2 may connect lines210-3, 210-6. The combiner 204 may combine the signals from lines 210-5,210-6 to output the combined signal to line 210-8. The switch 202-3 mayconnect the lines 210-8, 210-9 when the switch 202-3 is set to a switchposition S3, thereby allowing the combined data streams 206-1, 206-2 tobe simultaneously transmitted over the antenna 110. In the receive path,the signals received by the antenna 110 may follow a reverse path to therespective transceivers 114, 118.

When operating in a mutually-exclusive mode, in the transmit path, theswitches 202-1-p may be arranged to allow only one of the transceivers114, 118 to access the antenna 110 at a given moment in time. Forinstance, when the transceiver 114 is ready to transmit (or receive),the switch 202-1 may connect lines 210-1, 210-4 and the switch 202-3 mayconnect lines 210-4, 210-9 when the switch 202-3 is set to a switchposition S1. This allows the transceiver 114 to transmit data stream206-1 over the antenna 110. When the transceiver 118 is ready totransmit (or receive), the switch 202-2 may connect lines 210-3, 210-7,and the switch 202-3 may connect lines 210-7, 210-9 when the switch202-3 is set to a switch position S2. This allows the transceiver 118 totransmit data stream 206-2 over the antenna 110. The reverse may occurin a receive path for either transceiver 114, 118. It may be appreciatedthat when in the mutually-exclusive mode, the combiner 204 is removedfrom the signal path, thereby reducing or eliminating any disadvantagesassociated with the combiner 204, such as insertion loss.

It is worthy to note that if transceiver 114 implements aTransmit/Receive switch for operation that there will be multipleconnections between switch 202-1 and transceiver 114, and connection210-1 represents only one of multiple connections desired for a givenimplementation. It is also worthy to note that the Transmit/Receiveswitch function can then be combined into switch 202-1 for furtheroptimization in reducing insertion loss on both transmit and receive.

As previously described, the shared antenna structure 150 may share theantenna 110 with multiple transceivers 114, 118. The shared antennastructure 150 may also allow any number of additional transceivers toshare the antenna 110 as desired for a given implementation. Forinstance, the apparatus 200 is shown as having one or more additionaltransceivers 212-1-m connected to switch 202-3, thereby allowing the oneor more additional transceivers 212-1-m to use the antenna 110 in amutually-exclusive mode. The shared antenna structure 150 may form atransmit and/or a receive path between the transceiver 212-1-m and theantenna 110 by having the switch 202-3 connect the lines 210-2, 210-9.It may be appreciated that additional combiners 204 and/or switches202-1-p may be added to allow the additional transceivers 212-1-m toshare the antenna 110 in a simultaneous mode as well. The embodimentsare not limited in this context.

FIG. 3 illustrates an apparatus 300 having a more detailed block diagramof a second embodiment for the shared antenna structure 150. The sharedantenna structure 150 shown in FIG. 3 also comprises multiple switches202-1-p and at least one combiner 204. The shared antenna structure 150shown in apparatus 300 may be similar to the shared antenna structure150 shown in apparatus 200. For instance, the shared antenna structure150 may comprise the switch 202-1 communicatively coupled to thetransceiver 114, the combiner 204 communicatively coupled to the switch202-1 and the transceiver 118, and the switch 202-3 communicativelycoupled to the switch 202-1 and the combiner 204.

Unlike apparatus 200, however, the shared antenna structure 150 ofapparatus 300 adds a switch 202-4 communicatively coupled to thetransceiver 114 and a diplexer 302. The switch 202-4 controls transmitand receive paths 210-10, 210-11 to the antenna 110 via the diplexer302. Unlike a double pole cross switch typically implemented for theswitch 202-1, the switch 202-4 is a single pole switch that does notchange when the shared antenna structure 150 is configured forsimultaneous operations or mutually-exclusive operations. The switch202-4 may be used, for example, whenever the transceiver 114 needs amore direct path to the antenna 110 through the shared antenna structure150.

The shared antenna structure 150 may be placed in a given mode inresponse to a control signal 208. For instance, the host 106 may receiveactivity information for the first transceiver 114 and the secondtransceiver 118. Examples of such activity information can include, butis not necessarily limited to, such user generated events as initiationof WiFi connection, the start of data-transmission on a WiFi network,initiation of a Bluetooth audio connection, or the termination of any ofthese connections. The host 106 may send configuration information to ashared antenna structure for the first and second transceivers 114, 118via control signals 208. The configuration information may be used toarrange the combiner 204 and at least the switch 202-3 for the sharedantenna structure 150 for simultaneous operations or mutually-exclusiveoperations by the shared antenna structure 150.

In one embodiment, a particular configuration for the shared antennastructure 150 may be controlled by control logic for the shared antennastructure 150. The control logic may be implemented by a processor, suchas the host 106, the communications controller 116, or thecommunications controller 120. This logic flow can be evaluatedperiodically during the operation of the mobile computing device, toadapt the configuration to the user's current needs. Control for theshared antenna structure 150 may be described in more detail withreference to FIGS. 4-6.

Operations for the above embodiments may be further described withreference to the following figures and accompanying examples. Some ofthe figures may include a logic flow. Although such figures presentedherein may include a particular logic flow, it can be appreciated thatthe logic flow merely provides an example of how the generalfunctionality as described herein can be implemented. Further, the givenlogic flow does not necessarily have to be executed in the orderpresented, unless otherwise indicated. In addition, the given logic flowmay be implemented by a hardware element, a software element executed bya processor, or any combination thereof. The embodiments are not limitedin this context.

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a logic flow 400. Logic flow 400may be representative of the operations executed by one or moreembodiments described herein. For example, logic flow 400 may beoperations performed by control logic to generate control signals forthe shared antenna structure 150.

As shown in FIG. 4, the logic flow 400 may receive power stateinformation for a set of transceivers at block 402. For instance, anantenna control module may receive power state information for a set oftransceivers 114, 118. The power state information may indicate whethereach of the set of transceivers 114, 118 are in a power-on state or apower-off state. A power-on state may represent a state where one orboth of the transceivers 114, 118 are receiving power from a powersupply, such as power supply 714 as described with reference to FIG. 7.A power-off state may represent a state where one or both of thetransceivers 114, 118 are not receiving power from the power supply 714.The embodiments are not limited in this context.

The logic flow 400 may receive activity information for the set oftransceivers at block 404. For instance, an antenna control module mayreceive activity information for the set of transceivers 114, 118. Theactivity information may indicate whether each of the set oftransceivers 114, 118 are in an active state or idle state. An activestate may represent a state where one or both of the transceivers 114,118 are in a power-on state and operating, such as initiating aconnection, communicating information or terminating a connection. Anidle state may represent a state where one or both of the transceivers114, 118 are in a power-on state and not operating, such as when noconnections are present. The embodiments are not limited in thiscontext.

The logic flow 400 may generate control signals for simultaneousoperations or mutually-exclusive operations for a shared antennastructure connecting the set of transceivers to an antenna based on thepower state information and activity information at block 406. Forinstance, an antenna control module may generate control signals 208 forsimultaneous operations or mutually-exclusive operations for the sharedantenna structure 150 connecting the set of transceivers 114, 118 to theantenna 110 based on the power state information and activityinformation. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

FIG. 5A illustrates one embodiment of an apparatus 500. The apparatus500 may be similar to the apparatus 100. In addition, the apparatus 500may implement one or more antenna control modules 502-1-n and acoordination module 504. The antenna control modules 502-1-n and thecoordination module 504 may be implemented in hardware, software,firmware, or in any combination thereof. For instance, features ofmodules 502-1-n and 504 may be implemented with instructions or logic(e.g., software) that is provided on a storage medium for execution byone or more processors. For such implementations, modules 502-1-n, 504may each be implemented on a dedicated processor. Alternatively, aprocessor may be shared among modules 502-1-n and 504 (as well as amongother elements). In the illustrated embodiment shown in FIG. 5A, theantenna control module 502-1 and the coordination module 504 areimplemented as software or firmware for the host 106. The antennacontrol module 502-1 (or other antenna control modules 502-2 to 502-n)or the coordination module 504 may be implemented by other processors,such as one or more communications controllers 116, 120, or a dedicatedhardware or software controller for the shared antenna structure 150.The embodiments are not limited in this context.

In the illustrated embodiment shown in FIG. 5A, the antenna controlmodule 502-1 may be communicatively coupled to the shared antennastructure 150 either directly or indirectly via radio modules 102, 104.The antenna control module 502-1 may be operative to receive informationrepresenting activity for the first and second transceivers 114, 118,and arrange the shared antenna structure 150 for simultaneous operationsor mutually-exclusive operations. The antenna control module 502-1 mayreceive activity information, and generate a control directive orcontrol signal based on the activity information. The antenna controlmodule 502-1 may pass control directives or control signals (e.g.,control signals 208) directly to the shared antenna structure 150 vialine 510, or indirectly to the shared antenna structure 150 via theradio modules 102, 104 and respective lines 520, 522.

In one embodiment, for example, the antenna control module 502-1 may beoperative to receive information representing activity for thetransceivers 114, 118, and arrange the shared antenna structure forsimultaneous operations when both transceivers 114, 118 have a level ofactivity above a set of defined thresholds.

In one embodiment, for example, the antenna control module 502-1 may beoperative to receive information representing activity for the first andsecond transceivers 114, 118, and arrange the shared antenna structure150 for mutually-exclusive operations when one of the first or secondtransceivers 114, 118 are in an active state, such as when one of thefirst or second transceivers 114, 118 have a level of activity above adefined threshold, and another of the first or second transceivers 114,118 are in an idle state, such as when another of the first or secondtransceivers 1114, 118 have a level of activity below a definedthreshold.

In one embodiment, the defined thresholds for the transceivers 114, 118may be the same. In another embodiment, the defined thresholds may bedifferent thresholds for each radio, such as different parameters,different detection levels, and so forth.

FIG. 5B illustrates one embodiment of an apparatus 520. The apparatus520 may be similar to the apparatus 500. However, in addition to theantenna control module 502-1 as implemented by the host 106, theapparatus 520 may implement one or more additional antenna controlmodules 502-2, 502-3 by the respective communications controllers 116,120 for the respective transceivers 114, 118.

In various embodiments, the shared antenna structure 150 may becontrolled via control signals 208 as generated by the antenna controlmodule 502-1, the antenna control module 502-2, the antenna controlmodule 502-3, or some combination of the antenna control modules 502-1,502-2 or 502-3. In the latter case, for instance, one of the antennacontrol modules 502-1, 502-2 or 502-3 may be implemented as a primarycontroller, and another of the antenna control modules 502-1, 502-2 or502-3 may be implemented as a secondary controller. The primary andsecondary controllers, in various combinations of the antenna controlmodules 502-1, 502-2 or 502-3, may communicate information between eachother to coordinate operations. The antenna control modules 502-2, 502-3may pass control directives or control signals (e.g., control signals208) directly to the shared antenna structure 150 via line 510, orindirectly to the shared antenna structure 150 via the radio modules102, 104 and respective lines 520, 522.

In various embodiments, selection of primary and secondary controllersmay vary depending on various characteristics of the mobile computingdevice 110, such as the power states and activity states of thetransceivers 114, 118, for example.

From a high level, the antenna control modules 502-1-n should behaveaccording to the following heuristic:

-   -   1. When only one radio is on, switch the combiner out of the        path and give exclusive access of the antenna to that single        active radio (less insertion loss).    -   2. When both radios are on, switch the combiner into the path        and allow both radios access to the antenna. Each radio would        suffer the insertion loss of the combiner during this time.

This heuristic may be summarized in Table 1 as follows:

TABLE 1 Only Transceiver 114 ON Only Transceiver 118 ON BothTransceivers 114, 118 ON Combiner 204 is switched Combiner 204 isswitched Combiner 204 is switched in to out, antenna 110 given to out,antenna 110 given to allow simultaneous access to transceiver 114.transceiver 118. antenna 110. There is a 3.5 dB insertion loss.

With this heuristic, the antenna control module 502-1 implemented by thehost 106 should have control since it has general knowledge of thepower-on state of both transceivers 114, 118. However, timing of theantenna control module 502-1 would be relatively coarse, and thereforethis embodiment would work well only when the transceivers 114, 118 arein an active state.

The antenna control module 502-1 does know when each of the transceivers114, 118 is in an active state. For instance, when implemented as aBluetooth device, the transceiver 118 may be in an active state during asynchronous connection-oriented (SCO) call, advanced audio distributionprofile (A2DP) session, personal area network (PAN) session, discoveryoperations, paging operations, and so forth. During this time, it isimportant that the transceiver 118 has access to the antenna 110.Similarly, when implemented as a WiFi device, the transceiver 114 may bein an active state when there is active web browsing, emailsynchronization, a VoIP call, or other data activity on the transceiver114. When these active states coincide in time, then the combiner 204needs to be switched in to give optimum co-existence experience. Theantenna control module 502-1 implemented by the host 106 may haveknowledge of such macroscopic levels of activity and therefore canswitch in the combiner 204 when necessary.

However, most of the time neither of the transceivers 114, 118 is in anactive state but rather remains in an idle state. When in an idle state,each of the transceivers 114, 118 wakes up only occasionally to listenfor traffic or to keep a wireless connection alive. Keeping the combiner204 in the signal path of both transceivers 114, 118 simply because theyare in a power-on state may be inefficient. Both transceivers 114, 118are penalized with combiner insertion loss even though each transceiver114, 118 needs the antenna 110 relatively infrequently. Since each ofthe communications controllers 116, 120 know precisely when they needaccess to the antenna 110, however, it may be more efficient to give afiner level of real-time control of the switches 502-1-n of the sharedantenna structure 150 to one or both of the communications controllers116, 120.

During idle time, it is not readily apparent which of the transceivers114, 118 requires the antenna 110 more consistently. Therefore, it isinstructive to examine more closely the exact operations of thetransceivers 114, 118 when in idle states to evaluate which is thebetter candidate to control the switches 502-1-n of the shared antennastructure 150 during this time.

With respect to the transceiver 114, a WiFi device is inactive a vastmajority of time. Even if WiFi is in a power-on state, it is in unloaded(essentially placed in a power-off state) whenever the host 106 goesinto a power saving mode, such as a sleep/suspend mode (e.g., LCD turnsoff). During this time, the transceiver 114 does not need access to theantenna 110. When the host 106 is “awake” (e.g., LCD is on), then thetransceiver 114 goes into an active state to scan for, and associatewith, a wireless access point. During this period of time, it needs fullaccess to the antenna 110. Afterwards, the transceiver 114 goes into anidle state listening for beacons every delivery traffic indicationmessage (DTIM) interval.

While scanning, the communications controller 116 of the transceiver 114is in power save mode most of the time, only waking up each time thereis a beacon (e.g., every 100 msec to 300 msec depending on the accesspoint). It receives a beacon and decodes the traffic indication map(TIM) that identifies which stations have data frames waiting for themin a buffer of the access point. If the TIM indicates that there isdata, then the communications controller 116 comes out of power savemode, sends a trigger frame or null frame to indicate it is out of powersave mode, and begins receiving data in an active state. If no data isdetected after a certain time interval (e.g., 10 seconds), then thecommunications controller 116 goes into an extended power save mode,waking up every 400 msec, for example.

Each beacon typically contains 50 to 150 bytes of data including thefollowing information:

-   -   1. Frame header, cyclic redundancy check (CRC);    -   2. Source and destination MAC addresses, service set identifier        (SSID);    -   3. Time stamp;    -   4. Supported rates, parameter sets, capability information; and    -   5. Traffic indication map (TIM).        Assuming a 150 byte frame broadcast using the most robust        modulation of 1 Mbps,

${{beacon}\mspace{14mu} {time}} = {\frac{150\mspace{14mu} {bytes} \times \frac{8\mspace{14mu} {bits}}{byte}}{1,000,000\mspace{14mu} {bits}\text{/}\sec} = {1.2\mspace{14mu} m\; \sec}}$

For 10 seconds, the transceiver 114 needs the antenna 110 for

$\frac{1.2\mspace{14mu} m\; \sec}{100\mspace{14mu} m\; \sec} = {1.2\% \mspace{14mu} {{time}.}}$

After 10 seconds, the transceiver 114 needs the antenna 110 for

$\frac{1.2\mspace{14mu} m\; \sec}{400\mspace{14mu} m\; \sec} = {0.3\% \mspace{14mu} {{time}.}}$

If the communications controller 116 of the transceiver 114 detects thatthe received signal strength (RSS) drops below a threshold, it will gointo scan mode looking for other access points. This scan can last manyseconds and is considered an active state in which the antenna 110 isrequired constantly.

With respect to the transceiver 118, a Bluetooth device does not enter apower save mode when the host 106 enters a power save mode. Thecommunications controller 120 of the transceiver 118 remains in apower-on state to respond to pages from other Bluetooth devices. Ifthere are on-going asynchronous connectionless links (ACL), it mustoccasionally send ping packets to maintain the ACL link. All of thisactivity occurs even when the host 106 is in a power save mode.

A Bluetooth transceiver typically has several categories of activityincluding:

-   -   1. Page: Trying to establish a link with another Bluetooth        device by sending page packet with Bluetooth address.    -   2. Page scan: Waiting to be contacted, scanning for page packets        with its own Bluetooth address.    -   3. Inquiry: Trying to discover other Bluetooth devices—sending a        train of inquiry packets.    -   4. Inquiry scan: Ready to be discovered by other Bluetooth        devices—listening for inquiry packets.    -   5. Active: Actively sending/receiving Bluetooth packets.    -   6. Sniff: A link is established, but not transferring too much        data—only occasional keep-alive packets.    -   7. Hold: Bluetooth slave temporarily held in a waiting state.    -   8. Park: Long term suspension of Bluetooth slave in a waiting        state.        Of these active states, the ones of most interest for        controlling switches 502-1-n of the shared antenna module 150        may include page, inquiry, scans, and sniff, because the mobile        computing device 110 will spend the majority of its time in        these active states.

With respect to Bluetooth Inquiry and Inquiry Scan modes, when aBluetooth master wants to discover all Bluetooth devices within range,it goes into an Inquiry mode during which it sends an inquiry packet. ABluetooth device that is “discoverable” or “visible” is in the InquiryScan mode, scanning for inquiry packets. The inquiring device sends216-channel “trains” of inquiry packets. Each train takes approximately10 msec. Each train needs to be sent for 2 iterations, and the wholeprocess is repeated 256 times. This entire process may therefore take:

10 msec×2 trains×2 iterations×256=10.24 seconds

When operating as the inquiring device, the transceiver 118 needs theantenna 110 for the entire duration, so this is considered an activestate. When operating as a discoverable device, the transceiver 118 isin the Inquiry Scan mode in which it listens for inquiry packets for aduration of 11.25 msec (18 timeslots) every 1.28 to 2.56 seconds. It isworthy to note that this active state is only applicable when the userselects “make device visible/discoverable” in the Bluetooth preferencespanel. In other situations, the transceiver 118 will not be in InquiryScan mode. During Inquiry Scan Mode, the transceiver 118 needs access tothe antenna at most <1% of the time:

$\frac{11.25\mspace{14mu} m\; \sec}{1.28\mspace{14mu} \sec} = {0.88\%}$

With respect to Bluetooth Page and Page Scan modes, the transceiver 118connects to other devices by paging them. It sends paging packetscontaining an identifier of the destination device. It then listens fora response. If no response is heard, the transceiver 118 sends morepaging packets (at different frequencies) and listens again. Thisprocess continues until a page response is received. This is consideredan active state in which the transceiver 118 requires constant access tothe antenna 110.

For the majority of the time, the transceiver 118 is in a Page Scanmode. This is an active state when the transceiver 118 is waiting foranother peer Bluetooth device to send a Page with its identifier torequest the establishment of a connection. For example, this may occurwhen the mobile computing device 110 is waiting for a car kit to powerup and connect to it, waiting for a GPS device to send it location dataonce a second, and so forth.

The transceiver 118 by default scans for 11.25 msec, and repeats thePage Scan in 1.28 seconds (e.g., R1 Page Scan mode). To save power, itmay enter R2 Page Scan mode and scan every 2.56 seconds. During PageScan mode, the transceiver 118 needs access to the antenna 110 <1% ofthe time (similar to inquiry scan mode):

$\frac{11.25\mspace{14mu} m\; \sec}{1.28\mspace{20mu} \sec} = {0.88\%}$

With respect to Bluetooth Sniff mode, when there is a connection betweena Bluetooth master and Bluetooth slave but there is no active session(e.g., SCO, A2DP, PAN, etc), then they can go into one of three lowpower modes, including Sniff, Hold, and Park. Hold and Park modes aresomewhat complex and used infrequently in practice. Therefore, Sniffmode is primarily relevant.

When there is an active connection, the transceiver 118 must be ready toreceive packets every other timeslot, which is very power consuming.During Sniff mode, the transceiver 118 can be turned on only duringregularly spaced sniff intervals. The two devices can send linkmanagement protocol (LMP) supervision packets during these brief activetimes to keep the link active. During the intervening period, thetransceiver 118 can be in low power mode and does not require access tothe antenna 110.

The interval between sniff times is negotiated between the master andslave. The interval is typically an unsigned 16-bit number so up to 41seconds can be allowed between sniffs. In practice the sniff intervalsmay range from 10 msec to 100 msec to 1 second. For example, the devicesmay begin in a 10 msec sniff mode. After 10 seconds of no activity, itmay go into a 100 msec sniff mode. After 1 minute of no activity, thedevices may negotiate to enter into a 1 second sniff mode.

Using an aggressive 125 msec sniff period, the percentage of time thetransceiver 118 requires access to the antenna 110 during Sniff mode canbe calculated to be about 0.5%:

$\frac{625\mspace{14mu} µ\; \sec}{125\mspace{14mu} m\; \sec} = {0.5\%}$

Combining the common Bluetooth idle mode together, such as Page Scan andSniff mode, every 1.28 seconds the transceiver 118 requires access toantenna 110 for 10.24 sniffs and 1 page scan, which is:

$\frac{\left( {10.24 \times 625\mspace{14mu} µ\; \sec} \right) + {11.25\mspace{14mu} m\; \sec}}{1.25\mspace{20mu} \sec} = {1.34\%}$

As a practical matter, the antenna 110 should by default be given to thetransceiver 114, 118 that requires it more often, and then allow thecommunications controllers 116, 120 of the other transceiver 114, 118 tocontrol the switches 502-1-n to provide access to the antenna 110 whenneeded. In this case, a determination needs to be made as to which ofthe communications controllers 116, 120 should be given control of theswitches 502-1-n of the shared antenna structure 150.

Upon initial inspection, it appears that the communications controller116 of the transceiver 114 ought to control the switches 502-1-n becauseit requires the antenna 110 only 0.3% as compared to 1.3% for thetransceiver 118. Factoring in that the communication controller 116enters power save mode when the host 106 enters power save mode, thisfavors the communications controller 116 even more. It is reasonable,therefore, to have the default switch configuration in an idle state tobypass the combiner 204 and give the antenna 110 to the transceiver 118exclusively. Then when the transceiver 114 needs the antenna 110occasionally, the antenna control module 502-2 implemented by thecommunications controller 116 can control the switches 502-1-n to giveaccess of the antenna 110 to the transceiver 114, either exclusively orvia the combiner 204.

As such, a proposed control algorithm having a set of switch controlrules may be created as follows:

-   -   1. The antenna control module 502-1 implemented by the host 106        can have coarse control over switches 502-1-n when only one of        the transceivers 114, 118 is in a power-on state.    -   2. The antenna control module 502-1 implemented by the host 106        can control the switches 502-1-n when it knows that both        transceivers 114, 118 are in an active state.    -   3. When both transceivers 114, 118 are in a power-on state but        in an idle state (not active), the default configuration is to        give the transceiver 118 exclusive access to the antenna 110        with the combiner 204 switched out of the associated signal        path.    -   4. When the transceiver 114 needs the antenna 110, then antenna        control module 502-2 implemented by the communications        controller 116 can override the setting of the antenna control        module 502-1 implemented by the host 106 and pull the antenna        110 to itself. Access to the antenna 110 can be:        -   a. Exclusive for the transceiver 114 when the transceiver            118 is in an idle state.        -   b. Via the combiner 204 when the transceiver 118 is in an            active state such as SCO, A2DP, or PAN modes.        -   c. Control can be adjusted via empirical user experience.

The proposed control algorithm is shown in Table 2 as follows:

TABLE 2 Active state of Active state of the Shared antenna structure 150Switch 202-3 controlled the transceiver 118 transceiver 114configuration by: Default Antenna 110 given exclusively to Antennacontrol module the transceiver 118 with combiner 502-1 204 switched outof signal path. Only 1 transceiver 114, 118 in power-on state Onlytransceiver Antenna 110 given exclusively to Antenna control module 118in power-on transceiver 118 with combiner 204 502-1 state switched outof signal path. Only transceiver Antenna 110 given exclusively toAntenna control module 114 in power-on transceiver 114 with combiner502-1 state switched out of signal path. Both transceivers 114, 118 inpower-on state Transceiver 118 Transceiver 114 in Default = Transceiver118 Antenna control module in idle state: idle state (no dataTransceiver 114 gets antenna 110 502-2 overrides Antenna No SCO,session) exclusively when needed. control module 502-1 A2DP, PAN,Transceiver 114 in Transceiver 118 gets antenna 110 Antenna controlmodule Inquiry or page active state (data via combiner 204 when needed.502-2 overrides Antenna session, scanning) control module 502-1Transceiver 118 Transceiver 114 in Default = Transceiver 118 Antennacontrol module in active state: idle state (no data Transceiver 114 getsantenna 110 502-2 overrides Antenna SCO, A2DP, session) via combiner 204when needed. control module 502-1 PAN, Inquiry, Transceiver 114 inDefault = Transceiver 118 Antenna control module Page active state (dataTransceiver 114 gets antenna 110 502-2 overrides Antenna session,scanning) via combiner 204 when needed. control module 502-1It may be appreciated that the proposed control algorithm and switchcontrol rules described herein are by way of illustration and notlimitation, and may vary according to characteristics of thetransceivers 114, 118 for a given implementation. The embodiments arenot limited in this context.

In accordance with the proposed control algorithm for the shared antennastructure 150 shown in Table 2, the host 106 may execute the antennacontrol module 502-2 arranged to receive power state information andactivity information for the first and second transceivers 114, 118, andcontrol the shared antenna structure 150 for simultaneous operations ormutually-exclusive operations based on the received power stateinformation and activity information.

In one embodiment, for example, the antenna control module 502-1 maysend a control signal 208 to switch the switch 202-3 of the sharedantenna structure 150 to a first switch position S1 to form a firstsignal path between the transceiver 114 and the antenna 110 without thecombiner 204 in the first signal path to allow mutually-exclusiveoperations for the transceiver 114 when the power state informationindicates only the transceiver 114 is in a power-on state.

In one embodiment, for example, the antenna control module 502-1 maysend a control signal 208 to switch the switch 202-3 to a second switchposition S2 to form a second signal path between the transceiver 118 andthe antenna 110 without the combiner 204 in the second signal path toallow mutually-exclusive operations for the transceiver 118 when thepower state information indicates only the transceiver 118 is in apower-on state.

In one embodiment, for example, the antenna control module 502-1 maysend a control signal 208 to switch the switch 202-3 to a third switchposition S3 to form a third and fourth signal path between each of therespective transceivers 114, 118 and the antenna 110 with the combiner204 in the third and fourth signal paths to allow simultaneousoperations for the transceivers 114, 118 when the power stateinformation indicates the transceivers 114, 118 are both in a power-onstate and the activity information indicates the transceivers 114, 118are both in an active state.

In one embodiment, for example, the antenna control module 502-2 mayreplace or override control signals 208 coming from the antenna controlmodule 502-1 to take over control of the shared antenna structure 150.The communications controller 116 may implement the antenna controlmodule 502-2 arranged to control the shared antenna structure 150 forsimultaneous operations or mutually-exclusive operations when the powerstate information indicates the transceivers 114, 118 are both in apower-on state and the activity information indicates the transceivers114, 118 are both in an idle state.

In one embodiment, for example, the antenna control module 502-2 maysend a control signal 208 to switch the switch 202-3 to a first switchposition S1 to form a first signal path between the transceiver 114 andthe antenna 110 without the combiner 204 in the first signal path toallow mutually-exclusive operations for the transceiver 114 when theactivity information indicates only the transceiver 114 is in an activestate.

In one embodiment, for example, the antenna control module 502-2 maysend a control signal 208 to switch the switch 202-3 to a second switchposition S2 to form a second signal path between the transceiver 118 andthe antenna 110 without the combiner 204 in the second signal path toallow mutually-exclusive operations for the transceiver 118 when theactivity information indicates the transceiver 114 is in an idle stateor when the transceiver 118 is in an active state.

In one embodiment, for example, the antenna control module 502-2 maysend a control signal 208 to switch the switch 202-3 to a third switchposition S3 to form third and fourth signal paths between each of therespective transceivers 114, 118 and the antenna 110 with the combiner204 in the third and fourth signal paths to allow simultaneousoperations for the transceivers 114, 118 when the activity informationindicates the transceivers 114, 118 are both in an active state.

Additionally or alternatively, the transceiver 114 may take analternative path to the antenna 110 that bypasses the switch 202-1, thecombiner 204 and the switch 202-3 entirely. In one embodiment, forexample, the antenna control module 502-2 may send a control signal 208to activate the switch 202-4 to form a more direct path to the antenna110 via signal paths 210-10, 210-11, 210-12 through the diplexer 302.This path may also be used when the transceiver 114 utilizes a differentoperating frequency, such as a 5 GHz control switch, for example.

In some cases, the transceiver 114 may be arranged to operate atdifferent operating frequencies, such as a 2.4 GHz mode and a 5 GHzmode, for example. The different operating frequencies, and the presenceof the switch 202-4, allows the transceivers 114, 118 to both access theantenna 110 via separate paths based on transmit and receive activity ofthe transceiver 114.

In one embodiment, for example, the first antenna control module 502-1or the second antenna control module 502-2 may be arranged to send afirst control signal 208 a to switch the switch 202-3 to the secondswitch position S2 to form a second signal path between the transceiver118 and the antenna 110 without the combiner 204 in the second signalpath. The first antenna control module 502-1 or the second antennacontrol module 502-2 may be further arranged to send a second controlsignal 208 b to switch the switch 202-4 to a switch position to form afifth signal path between the transceiver 114 and the antenna 110without the combiner 204 in the fifth signal path. This may allowsimultaneous operations for the transceivers 114, 118 when the activityinformation indicates the transceivers 114, 118 are both in an activestate.

By way of example, when the transceiver 114 has 5 GHz WiFi transmitactivity, the antenna control module 502-2 may send a control signal 208b to the switch 202-4 switching 5 GHz WiFi Tx into the signal pathhaving the diplexer 302, thereby allowing the transceiver 114 to have adirect path to the antenna 110. The antenna control module 502-2 mayalso send a control signal 208 a to switch the switch 202-3 to a secondswitch position S2 to form a second signal path between the transceiver118 and the antenna 110 without the combiner 204 in the second signalpath, thereby allowing the transceiver 118 to have a direct path to theantenna 110. Similarly, when the transceiver 114 has 5 GHz WiFi receiveactivity, the antenna control module 502-2 may send a control signal 208b to the switch 202-4 switching 5 GHz WiFi Rx into the signal pathhaving the diplexer 302, thereby allowing the transceiver 114 to have adirect path to the antenna 110. The antenna control module 502-2 mayalso send a control signal 208 a to switch the switch 202-3 to a secondswitch position S2 to form a second signal path between the transceiver118 and the antenna 110 without the combiner 204 in the second signalpath, thereby allowing the transceiver 118 to have a direct path to theantenna 110. This configuration allows simultaneous operations for thetransceivers 114, 118 without using the combiner 204 when one of thetransceivers 114, 118 operates using multiple sets of operatingfrequencies for transmitting and receiving information.

Referring again to FIGS. 1, 5A and 5B, the radio modules 102, 104 mayinclude respective communications controllers 116, 120 communicativelycoupled to the respective transceivers 114, 118. The communicationscontrollers 116, 120 may exchange information between their respectivetransceivers 114, 118. The communications controllers 116, 120 may alsobe operative to exchange information regarding operation of thetransceivers 114, 118, and schedule operations for the transceivers 114,118 based on the exchanged information. In this case, the communicationscontrollers 116, 120 operate as peer elements. Additionally oralternatively, the communications controllers 116, 120 may be operativeto exchange information with the coordination module 504. In this case,the coordination module 504 may operate as a master while thecommunications controllers 116, 120 operate as slaves to thecoordination module 504.

The communications controllers 116, 120 may be implemented in hardware,software, firmware, or in any combination thereof. For instance,features of communications controllers 116, 120 may be implemented withinstructions or logic (e.g., software) that is provided on a storagemedium for execution by one or more processors. For suchimplementations, communications controllers 116, 120 may each include adedicated processor (e.g., a baseband processor). Alternatively, suchprocessors may be shared among controllers 116, 120 (as well as amongother elements).

The communications controllers 116, 120 may control activities of acorresponding transceiver 114, 118. This may involve sending one or moredirectives to the corresponding transceiver. To provide such control,the communications controllers 116, 120 may include various logic,routines, and/or circuitry that operate on information received fromother radio modules. In embodiments, one or more processors may executesuch logic and routines.

Such control may involve scheduling the corresponding transceiver'stransmit and receive activities. This scheduling may involve determiningwhen transmissions should be limited or prohibited. For instance,communications controllers 116, 120 may prohibit its correspondingtransceivers 114, 118 from transmitting signals based on informationreceived from the other radio. An example of such information is anindication that another radio is currently receiving transmissions.

In embodiments, communications controllers 116, 120 may receive statusdata from the corresponding transceivers 114, 118. The status data mayinclude various types of information. For instance, the status data mayconvey timing information. This may be in the form of clock orsynchronization pulses. However, the status data may convey otherinformation as well.

The communications controllers 116, 120 may exchange information witheach other. This exchange may involve providing one or more radiomodules 102, 104 with operational information. For instance,communications controllers 116, 120 may exchange notifications conveyinginformation regarding the corresponding transceiver's activities oroperational status. Status registers may be used to store variables andinformation regarding such activities or operational status. Based onsuch notifications, communications controllers 116, 120 may sendassociated messages or signals to each other. In addition,communications controllers 116, 120 may send control directives to thecorresponding transceivers 114, 118 for appropriate action (if any). Thecommunications controllers 116, 120 may employ various techniques toexchange information with each other. For example, the communicationscontrollers 116, 120 may activate and/or detect activated signal lines.Such signal lines may be dedicated to particular signals. Alternatively,communications controllers 116, 120 may generate data messages to betransmitted across various connections. Exemplary connections mayinclude a parallel interface, a serial interface, a bus interface,and/or a data network.

Coordination module 504 may control operations of transceivers 114, 118.This may include scheduling transmission and reception activity fortransceivers 114, 118. Such control may be based on operational statusof transceivers 114, 118. Control and coordination of transceivers mayinvolve the exchange of information between coordination module 504 andthe communication controllers of each radio module 102, 104. Forinstance, FIG. 5A shows coordination module 504 exchanging informationvia line 520 with communications controller 116 and information via line522 with communications controller 120.

This information may include status data sent to coordination module504. Such status data may originate as operational status informationprovided by transceivers 114, 118. Further, this information may includecommands sent to communications controllers 116, 120. In turn, thesecommunications controllers may forward associated control directives totransceivers 114, 118, respectively. The information may be implementedas signals allocated to various signal lines, data messages, and soforth. This information may be sent across various interconnectionmedium 108 or alternative connections.

FIG. 6 is a diagram 600 illustrating exemplary coordination that may beperformed by antenna control module 502-1, radio modules 104, 102, andthe shared antenna structure 150. As shown in FIG. 6, radio modules 102,104 may send activity information 602-1, 602-2 to the antenna controlmodule 502-1. Antenna control module 502-1 may generate and sendconfiguration information 604 to the shared antenna structure 150 basedon the activity information 602-1, 602-2. The configuration information604 may indicate whether the shared antenna structure 150 is placed in asimultaneous mode or a mutually-exclusive mode. The configurationinformation 604 may be in the form of a control signal or message.

Diagram 600 also illustrates exemplary coordination that may beperformed by coordination module 504 and the radio modules 102, 104. Thecoordination module 504 may be operative to receive informationregarding operation of the transceivers 114, 118, and scheduleoperations for the transceivers 114, 118 based on the receivedinformation. As shown in FIG. 6, antenna control module 502-1 mayforward activity information 602-1, 602-2 to the coordination module504. Additionally or alternatively, the radio modules 102, 104 mayexchange information directly with the coordination module 504 via thelines 520, 522. The coordination module 504 may send coordinationinformation 608-1, 608-2 to the respective radio modules 102, 104 basedon the activity information 602-1, 602-2. For instance, coordinationmodule 504 may delay, slow-down, or prevent one or both radio modules102, 104 from transmitting wireless signals.

The antenna control module 502-1 and the coordination module 504 mayalso exchange information to affect performance of the radio modules102, 104 and/or the shared antenna structure 150 via line 610. Forinstance, the antenna control module 502-1 and the coordination module504 may exchange information to control how long the shared antennastructure 150 is in a simultaneous mode or a mutually-exclusive mode.Reducing an amount of time the shared antenna structure 150 is in asimultaneous mode reduces an amount of insertion loss caused by thecombiner 204 of the antenna control module 150. This may provide atechnical advantage under certain conditions.

An exemplary use scenario may include when the shared antenna structure150 is arranged to operate in a simultaneous mode, but the quality ofthe wireless signals fall below a desired threshold for one or bothtransceivers 114, 118. In this case, the coordination module 504 mayinstruct one of the transceivers 114, 118 to delay or preventoperations, and instruct the antenna control module 502-1 to change theshared antenna structure from the simultaneous mode to amutually-exclusive mode for one of the transceivers 114, 118. Thisreduces or obviates the insertion loss associated with the circuitelements providing the simultaneous mode, thereby making more poweravailable to increase range, signal strength or quality. A selection ofwhich of the transceivers 114, 118 to delay or prevent operation may beperformed in accordance with any desired criterion, such as assignedpriority levels, signal strengths, or quality for the respectivetransceivers 114, 118.

Another exemplary use scenario may include monitoring a power level fora battery. When a power level for the battery falls below a certaindefined threshold, one or both of the transceivers may need to be turnedoff to conserve power. In this case, the coordination module 504 mayinstruct one of the transceivers 114, 118 to delay or preventoperations, and instruct the antenna control module 502-1 to change theshared antenna structure from the simultaneous mode to amutually-exclusive mode for one of the transceivers 114, 118. Thisreduces or obviates the insertion loss associated with the circuitelements providing the simultaneous mode, thereby extending battery lifefor a mobile device.

These are merely a few exemplary use scenarios, and it may beappreciated that the antenna control module 502-1 and the coordinationmodule 504 may exchange information and coordinate operations betweenthe radio modules 102, 104 and the shared antenna structure 150 tofurther enhance performance of a wireless device. The embodiments arenot limited to these examples.

As previously discussed with reference to communications controllers116, 120, some or all of the radio architectures described withreference to FIGS. 1-7 may be implemented on a single chip, such as asystem on a chip (SoC). A SoC integrates all components of a computer orother electronic system into a single integrated circuit (chip). It maycontain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and radio-frequency functions—allon a single chip substrate. Additionally or alternatively, some or allof the radio architectures as described herein may be implemented as asystem in package (SiP). A SiP may comprise a number of chips formed ina single package. When the various functions collapse into a single chipor package, messages may be passed as message queues, shared via stacks,sent via semaphores or flags, and so forth, rather than traditional businterfaces (e.g., USB, SPI, etc.). The embodiments are not limited inthis context.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a system 700. This system may besuitable for use with one or more embodiments described herein, such asapparatus 100, apparatus 200, apparatus 300, logic flow 400, apparatus500, diagram 600, and so forth. Accordingly, system 700 may engage inwireless communications across various link types, such as the onesdescribed herein. In addition, system 700 may perform various userapplications.

As shown in FIG. 7, system 700 may include a device 702, multiplecommunications networks 704, and one or more remote devices 706. FIG. 7shows that device 702 may include the elements of FIG. 1. Additionallyor alternatively, device 702 may include the elements of FIG. 5A. In theillustrated embodiment shown in FIG. 7, device 702 may include a memory708, a user interface 710, a wired communications interface 712, a powersupply 714, and an expansion interface 716.

Device 702 may illustrate any wireless device suitable for implementingvarious embodiments as described herein. The wireless device maycomprise a mobile or stationary device. In one embodiment, for example,the device 702 may be implemented as a combination handheld computer andmobile telephone, sometimes referred to as a smart phone. It can beappreciated that the device may comprise a computing device having ahandheld form factor. While certain exemplary embodiments may bedescribed with the device 702 implemented as a smart phone by way ofexample, the device 702 may be implemented as other types of computingdevices such as a mobile telephone, a software telephone phone runningon a computer, or other suitable computing device having computing andcommunications capabilities in accordance with the describedembodiments. Exemplary computing devices may include a personal computer(PC), desktop PC, notebook PC, laptop computer, smart phone, mobiletelephone, personal digital assistant (PDA), combination mobiletelephone/PDA, mobile computing device, user equipment (UE), mobileunit, subscriber station, video device, television (TV) device, digitalTV (DTV) device, high-definition TV (HDTV) device, media player device,gaming device, messaging device, pager, mobile internet device, tabletcomputer, netbook computer, or any other suitable communications devicein accordance with the described embodiments.

Memory 708 may store information in the form of data. For instance,memory 708 may contain application documents, e-mails, sound files,and/or images in either encoded or unencoded formats. Alternatively oradditionally, memory 708 may store control logic, instructions, and/orsoftware components. These software components include instructions thatcan be executed by one or more processors. Such instructions may providefunctionality of one or more elements in system 700. Exemplary elementsinclude host 106, one or more components within radio modules 102 and104, user interface 710, and/or communications interface 712.

Memory 708 may be implemented using any machine-readable orcomputer-readable media capable of storing data, including both volatileand non-volatile memory. For example, memory 708 may include read-onlymemory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM),Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM(SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymermemory such as ferroelectric polymer memory, ovonic memory, phase changeor ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS)memory, magnetic or optical cards, or any other type of media suitablefor storing information. It is worthy to note that some portion or allof memory 708 may be included in other elements of system 700. Forinstance, some or all of memory 708 may be included on a same integratedcircuit or chip with elements of apparatus 100. Alternatively someportion or all of memory 708 may be disposed on an integrated circuit orother medium, for example a hard disk drive, which is external. Theembodiments are not limited in this context.

User interface 710 facilitates user interaction with device 702. Thisinteraction may involve the input of information from a user and/or theoutput of information to a user. Accordingly, user interface 710 mayinclude one or more devices, such as a keyboard (e.g., a full QWERTYkeyboard), a keypad, a touch screen, a microphone, and/or an audiospeaker. In addition, user interface 710 may include a display to outputinformation and/or render images/video processed by device 702.Exemplary displays include liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasmadisplays, and video displays.

Wired communications interface 712 provides for the exchange ofinformation with a device 706 c (e.g., a proximate device), such as apersonal computer. This exchange of information may be across one ormore wired connections. Examples of such connections include USBinterfaces, parallel interfaces, and/or serial interfaces. In addition,interface 712 may provide for such exchanges across wirelessconnections(s). An infrared interface is an example of such aconnection. The information exchanged with such proximate devices, mayinclude e-mail, calendar entries, contact information, as well as otherinformation associated with personal information managementapplications. In addition, such information may include variousapplication files, and content (e.g., audio, image, and/or video).

Wired communications interface 712 may include various components, suchas a transceiver and control logic to perform operations according toone or more communications protocols. In addition, communicationsinterface 712 may include input/output (I/O) adapters, physicalconnectors to connect the I/O adapter with a correspondingcommunications medium.

FIG. 7 shows that device 702 may communicate across wireless networks704 a and 704 b. In particular, FIG. 7 shows communications acrossnetwork 704 a being handled by second radio module 104, andcommunications across network 704 b being handled by first radio module102. Accordingly, first wireless network 704 a may be a cellularnetwork, while second wireless network 704 b may be a wireless datanetwork. However, the embodiments are not limited to these examples.

Such wireless communications allow device 702 to communicate withvarious remote devices. For instance, FIG. 7 shows device 702 engagingin wireless communications (e.g., telephony or messaging) with a mobiledevice 706 a. In addition, FIG. 7 shows device engaging in wirelesscommunications (e.g., WLAN, WMAN, and/or PAN communications) with anaccess point 706 b. In turn access point 706 b may provide device 702with access to further communications resources. For example, FIG. 7shows access point 706 b providing access to a packet network 704 c,such as the Internet.

Power supply 714 provides operational power to elements of device 702.Accordingly, power supply 714 may include an interface to an externalpower source, such as an alternating current (AC) source. Additionallyor alternatively, power supply 714 may include a battery. Such a batterymay be removable and/or rechargeable. However, the embodiments are notlimited to these examples.

Expansion interface 716 may be in the form of an expansion slot, such asa secure digital (SD) slot. Accordingly, expansion interface 716 mayaccept memory, external radios (e.g., global positioning system (GPS),Bluetooth, WiFi radios, etc.), content, hard drives, and so forth. Theembodiments, however, are not limited to SD slots. Other expansioninterface or slot technology may include memory stick, compact flash(CF), as well as others.

Numerous specific details have been set forth herein to provide athorough understanding of the embodiments. It will be understood bythose skilled in the art, however, that the embodiments may be practicedwithout these specific details. In other instances, well-knownoperations, components and circuits have not been described in detail soas not to obscure the embodiments. It can be appreciated that thespecific structural and functional details disclosed herein may berepresentative and do not necessarily limit the scope of theembodiments.

Various embodiments may be implemented using hardware elements, softwareelements, or a combination of both. Examples of hardware elements mayinclude processors, microprocessors, circuits, circuit elements (e.g.,transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and so forth), integratedcircuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), programmablelogic devices (PLD), digital signal processors (DSP), field programmablegate array (FPGA), logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips,microchips, chip sets, and so forth. Examples of software may includesoftware components, programs, applications, computer programs,application programs, system programs, machine programs, operatingsystem software, middleware, firmware, software modules, routines,subroutines, functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces,application program interfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code,computer code, code segments, computer code segments, words, values,symbols, or any combination thereof. Determining whether an embodimentis implemented using hardware elements and/or software elements may varyin accordance with any number of factors, such as desired computationalrate, power levels, heat tolerances, processing cycle budget, input datarates, output data rates, memory resources, data bus speeds and otherdesign or performance constraints.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “coupled” and“connected” along with their derivatives. These terms are not intendedas synonyms for each other. For example, some embodiments may bedescribed using the terms “connected” and/or “coupled” to indicate thattwo or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact witheach other. The term “coupled,” however, may also mean that two or moreelements are not in direct contact with each other, but yet stillco-operate or interact with each other.

Some embodiments may be implemented, for example, using amachine-readable medium or article which may store an instruction or aset of instructions that, if executed by a machine, may cause themachine to perform a method and/or operations in accordance with theembodiments. Such a machine may include, for example, any suitableprocessing platform, computing platform, computing device, processingdevice, computing system, processing system, computer, processor, or thelike, and may be implemented using any suitable combination of hardwareand/or software. The machine-readable medium or article may include, forexample, any suitable type of memory unit, memory device, memoryarticle, memory medium, storage device, storage article, storage mediumand/or storage unit, for example, memory, removable or non-removablemedia, erasable or non-erasable media, writeable or re-writeable media,digital or analog media, hard disk, floppy disk, Compact Disk Read OnlyMemory (CD-ROM), Compact Disk Recordable (CD-R), Compact DiskRewriteable (CD-RW), optical disk, magnetic media, magneto-opticalmedia, removable memory cards or disks, various types of DigitalVersatile Disk (DVD), a tape, a cassette, or the like. The instructionsmay include any suitable type of code, such as source code, compiledcode, interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code,encrypted code, and the like, implemented using any suitable high-level,low-level, object-oriented, visual, compiled and/or interpretedprogramming language.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, it may be appreciated that termssuch as “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,” or thelike, refer to the action and/or processes of a computer or computingsystem, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and/ortransforms data represented as physical quantities (e.g., electronic)within the computing system's registers and/or memories into other datasimilarly represented as physical quantities within the computingsystem's memories, registers or other such information storage,transmission or display devices. The embodiments are not limited in thiscontext.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asexample forms of implementing the claims.

1. An apparatus, comprising: an antenna; a first radio module having afirst transceiver to communicate wirelessly across a first link and afirst communications controller to control the first transceiver; asecond radio module having a second transceiver to communicatewirelessly across a second link and a second communications controllerto control the second transceiver; a shared antenna structurecommunicatively coupled to the first radio module, the second radiomodule and the antenna, the shared antenna structure comprising acombiner and at least one switch arranged to allow the first transceiverand the second transceiver to share the antenna for simultaneousoperations or mutually-exclusive operations; and a host processorcommunicatively coupled to the shared antenna structure, the hostprocessor to execute a first antenna control module arranged to receivepower state information and activity information for the first andsecond transceivers, and control the shared antenna structure forsimultaneous operations or mutually-exclusive operations based on thepower state information and activity information.
 2. The apparatus ofclaim 1, the shared antenna structure comprising a first switchcommunicatively coupled to the first transceiver, a second switchcommunicatively coupled to the second transceiver, a combinercommunicatively coupled to the first and second switches, and a thirdswitch communicatively coupled to the first switch, the second switchand the combiner.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, the shared antennastructure comprising a first switch communicatively coupled to the firsttransceiver, a second switch communicatively coupled to the secondtransceiver, a combiner communicatively coupled to the first and secondswitches, a third switch communicatively coupled to the first switch,the second switch, the combiner and a diplexer, and a fourth switchcommunicatively coupled to the first transceiver and the diplexer. 4.The apparatus of claim 1, the first antenna control module to send acontrol signal to switch the at least one switch to a first switchposition to form a first signal path between the first transceiver andthe antenna without the combiner in the first signal path to allowmutually-exclusive operations for the first transceiver when the powerstate information indicates only the first transceiver is in a power-onstate.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, the first antenna control module tosend a control signal to switch the at least one switch to a secondswitch position to form a second signal path between the secondtransceiver and the antenna without the combiner in the second signalpath to allow mutually-exclusive operations for the second transceiverwhen the power state information indicates only the second transceiveris in a power-on state.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, the first antennacontrol module to send a control signal to switch the at least oneswitch to a third switch position to form a third and fourth signal pathbetween each of the respective first and second transceivers and theantenna with the combiner in the third and fourth signal paths to allowsimultaneous operations for the first and second transceivers when thepower state information indicates the first and second transceivers areboth in a power-on state and the activity information indicates thefirst and second transceivers are both in an active state.
 7. Theapparatus of claim 1, the first communications controller comprising asecond antenna control module arranged to control the shared antennastructure for simultaneous operations or mutually-exclusive operationswhen the power state information indicates the first and secondtransceivers are both in a power-on state and the activity informationindicates the first and second transceivers are both in an idle state.8. The apparatus of claim 7, the second antenna control module to send acontrol signal to switch the at least one switch to a first switchposition to form a first signal path between the first transceiver andthe antenna without the combiner in the first signal path to allowmutually-exclusive operations for the first transceiver when theactivity information indicates only the first transceiver is in anactive state.
 9. The apparatus of claim 7, the second antenna controlmodule to send a control signal to switch the at least one switch to asecond switch position to form a second signal path between the secondtransceiver and the antenna without the combiner in the second signalpath to allow mutually-exclusive operations for the second transceiverwhen the activity information indicates the first transceiver is in anidle state.
 10. The apparatus of claim 7, the second antenna controlmodule to send a control signal to switch the at least one switch to athird switch position to form third and fourth signal paths between eachof the respective first and second transceivers and the antenna with thecombiner in the third and fourth signal paths to allow simultaneousoperations for the first and second transceivers when the activityinformation indicates the first and second transceivers are both in anactive state.
 11. The apparatus of claim 7, the first antenna controlmodule or the second antenna control module to send a first controlsignal to switch the at least one switch to a second switch position toform a second signal path between the second transceiver and the antennawithout the combiner in the second signal path, and a second controlsignal to switch a second switch to a switch position to form a fifthsignal path between the first transceiver and the antenna without thecombiner in the fifth signal path, to allow simultaneous operations forthe first and second transceivers when the activity informationindicates the first and second transceivers are both in an active state.12. The apparatus of claim 1, the combiner arranged to isolate signalpaths formed between the respective first and second transceivers andthe antenna for simultaneous operations or mutually-exclusiveoperations.
 13. A method, comprising: receiving power state informationfor a set of transceivers; receiving activity information for the set oftransceivers; and generating control signals for simultaneous operationsor mutually-exclusive operations for a shared antenna structureconnecting the set of transceivers to an antenna based on the powerstate information and activity information.
 14. The method of claim 13,comprising sending a control signal from a host processor to set aswitch to a first switch position to form a first signal path between afirst transceiver and the antenna without a combiner in the first signalpath to allow mutually-exclusive operations for the first transceiverwhen the power state information indicates only the first transceiver isin a power-on state.
 15. The method of claim 13, comprising sending acontrol signal from a host processor to set a switch to a second switchposition to form a second signal path between a first transceiver andthe antenna without a combiner in the second signal path to allowmutually-exclusive operations for the second transceiver when the powerstate information indicates only the second transceiver is in a power-onstate.
 16. The method of claim 13, comprising sending a control signalfrom a host processor to set a switch to a third switch position to forma third and fourth signal path between each of respective first andsecond transceivers and the antenna with a combiner in the third andfourth signal paths to allow simultaneous operations for the first andsecond transceivers when the power state information indicates the firstand second transceivers are both in a power-on state and the activityinformation indicates the first and second transceivers are both in anactive state.
 17. The method of claim 13, comprising sending a controlsignal from a communications controller to set a switch to a firstswitch position to form a first signal path between a first transceiverand the antenna without a combiner in the first signal path to allowmutually-exclusive operations for the first transceiver when theactivity information indicates only the first transceiver is in anactive state.
 18. The method of claim 13, comprising sending a controlsignal from a communications controller to set a switch to a secondswitch position to form a second signal path between a secondtransceiver and the antenna without a combiner in the second signal pathto allow mutually-exclusive operations for the second transceiver whenthe activity information indicates the first transceiver is in an idlestate.
 19. The method of claim 13, comprising sending a control signalfrom a communications controller to set a switch to a third switchposition to form third and fourth signal paths between each ofrespective first and second transceivers and the antenna with a combinerin the third and fourth signal paths to allow simultaneous operationsfor the first and second transceivers when the activity informationindicates the first and second transceivers are both in an active state.20. The method of claim 13, comprising sending a first control signal toswitch the at least one switch to a second switch position to form asecond signal path between the second transceiver and the antennawithout the combiner in the second signal path, and a second controlsignal to switch a second switch to a switch position to form a fifthsignal path between the first transceiver and the antenna without thecombiner in the fifth signal path, to allow simultaneous operations forthe first and second transceivers when the activity informationindicates the first and second transceivers are both in an active state.21. An article comprising a storage medium containing instructions thatwhen executed enable a system to: receive power state information for aset of transceivers; receive activity information for the set oftransceivers; and generate control signals for simultaneous operationsor mutually-exclusive operations for a shared antenna structureconnecting the set of transceivers to an antenna based on the powerstate information and activity information.
 22. The article of claim 21,further comprising instructions to send control signals from a hostprocessor to a switch to form a signal path without a combiner of theshared antenna structure for mutually-exclusive operations when only onetransceiver from the set of transceivers is in a power-on state.
 23. Thearticle of claim 21, further comprising instructions to send controlsignals from a communications controller to a switch to form a signalpath without a combiner of the shared antenna structure formutually-exclusive operations when only one transceiver from the set oftransceivers is in a power-on state and an active state, and a signalpath with the combiner of the shared antenna structure for simultaneousoperations when all of the transceivers are in a power-on state andactive states.
 24. The article of claim 21, further comprisinginstructions to send control signals from a host processor to multipleswitches to form multiple signal paths without the combiner between eachtransceiver and the antenna to allow simultaneous operations for thetransceivers when the power state information indicates bothtransceivers are in power-on states and the activity informationindicates both transceivers are in active states.
 25. The article ofclaim 21, further comprising instructions to send control signals from acommunications controller to multiple switches to form multiple signalpaths without the combiner between each transceiver and the antenna toallow simultaneous operations for the transceivers when the power stateinformation indicates both transceivers are in power-on states and theactivity information indicates both transceivers are in active states.